[NOVAC] iridium sadness

[Mark Whittington]

The current constellation is at EOL and they're facing some problems.

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/short-iridium-communications-set-to-unravel-as-current-constellation-nears-end-of-life-cm605828

On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 10:48 PM, RICHARD BARTH <w3hwn at comcast.net> wrote:

> Oh, are they shutting down the Iridium system? Hadn't heard. It survived
> its initial scare pretty
>
> well some years back, when the original company went bust and the whole
> thing was sold by
>
> Motorola and some other investors for pennies on the dollar to the company
> that has been
>
> running it since. IIRC it was essentially bankrolled by DoD, which liked
> the fact that its traffic
>
> was encrypted and landed only in Hawaii, so its use by the military was
> better protected than
>
> it would have been if ground stations were located elsewhere. Also the big
> push Motorola put
>
> on to get spectrum at the WRC (95? 97? I forget.) A big reception for any
> delegate who cared
>
> to show up. Heard reports they were looking for investors among the
> foreign delegations as
>
> well.
>
>
> Well, it's had a longer run than anyone expected at the time. A lot of
> people were planning to
>
> sit back and watch the birds burn up on re-entry, which was the plan until
> the bankruptcy sale
>
> went through.
>
>
>
> On August 24, 2016 at 9:41 PM Frank Eliot <feliot at his.com> wrote:
>
>
> Iridium flares are tabulated at   http://www.heavens-above.com
> I watch for them now and then when they are bright.
>
> Frank E
>
> On Aug 24, 2016, at 8:49 08PM, Mark Whittington <markwhi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Interesting Iridium memories from someone in the local astronomy club,
> seems like something this list might also appreciate.
>
> Cheers.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: *Tom Finkenbinder via NOVAC*
> Date: Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 8:02 PM
> Subject: [NOVAC] iridium sadness
>
>
> Sorry to hear the word is these little guys are going to be
> decommissioned.  I worked on contract with Motorola to test the radio
> components mounted on a Boeing bus when the network was being launched.  We
> did on-orbit testing to measure power output from the antennas, the
> multiplexers and frequency converters, modulators, etc.
> Satellite-to-satellite routing of calls was actually on a wireless frame
> relay network. They piped video and audio in on the big screens for the
> Vandenberg launches.  We only had audio for launches from China (and I
> don’t speak Chinese but you could figure out the countdown and stage
> separation).
>
>
>
> Imagine a cell phone tower with wings, and instead of driving and being
> handed off from cell to cell, the network is moving overhead and handing us
> off satellite to satellite.  The antenna gain pattern looks like a daisy
> projected onto earth, so with sixty some of them moving in six
> polar-aligned orbits, the whole earth was covered with these floating
> daisies, each completing an LEO in about 110 minutes.
>
>
>
> It was the most James Bond work I ever had as an engineer.  Place was a
> lockdown facility with flight bay, no windows.  Huge bank of batteries (two
> stories high) for backup if the power supply went down.  It’s not
> classified or hush-hush anymore. The flight center for the whole network is
> tucked back into the woods off the 13th fairway of the original Lansdowne
> golf course.  We would spend 12 – 14 hour shifts any time of the day and
> night over there.  I’d drive home to and from Arlington and tell my wife
> that everyone and their brother would be moving out to Leesburg and Ashburn
> (and boy did they!).  My commute was on the new Greenway, probably less
> than $2.00 each way.  Just me and the deer at night, really no other cars
> and I got off at what was Waxpool Road at the time, Belmonte Ridge over to
> Route 7 past Partlows (now Carolina Brothers BBQ), picked up an egg and
> cheese sandwich in the mornings and in to work.
>
>
>
> My kids were 6 mos and 2 years old.  We moved to Leesburg 12 months
> later.  Now you can guess my age!  I’d go out looking for those flares when
> the ephemeris was posted on line.  I haven’t gone out to look in awhile.
> They are predictable if you know when and where to look and I’d go to our
> observing sites sometimes when I first joined NOVAC to point them out.
> Someone in the club told me if we lived in Medieval times and I did that,
> I’d be branded a witch and burned at the stake!
>
>
>
> cheers
>
>
>
> tf
>
>
>
> *@TomFinkenbinder*
>
>
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